There are newer troubles as well: More than eight in 10 continue to see the alleged White House leak of a CIA operative's identity as a "serious matter," and the number who think the administration is fully cooperating in the investigation has declined to 39 percent. About two-thirds still favor appointment of an outside special counsel to look into the matter.
Looks like most american's don't agree with your mr. "president"...
Is it because the Admin came out and said that its council would likely not find the guilty party?
I think a large part of the blaim has to go to our so called "liberal" media.
The story was born in july of this year.David corn broke the story re bob nofacts and the outing. It was ignored for the most part. The nytimes to this day has not contributed anything to this. Most of the rest of the media has been asleep at the wheel or worse cowtowing to bush JUNIOR's press dept.
I think right now we are in the pre "gap dress" stage of the investigation. from now until jan. i really don't know if anything big will happen but come next year it becomes a major political story by the democrats running for prez. And right fully so.
If this had been clinton. His decaying body would still be hung up by his fingernails in washinton square...
The "president' said he would do anything to find ossam. to get saddam. and yet when it comes to a "insidious traitor" (those are daddy's words JUNIOR, not mine) within his own walls he puts up his hands and says "its a big goverment, we may never find the leaker."
You may not find him "prez" but you know or you know who knows who it is.
Lie. Deceive. Go to war. Tax cuts.
Bush JUNIOR does not know much, but he knows one thing. There is a traitor in his midst and the best thing for him would have been to get all of this out last month. But he did not. This means it political liablity going into the next election.
But hey. At least the media has got that Kobe case covered
Mr Ashcroft is saying he's looking for the "blue gap dress" dress but do we believe him?
Why this press conference?
Just PR to help the presidents bottom scraping pol numbers...?
Quote:
Ashcroft Says His Investigators Have Made Gains in Leak Case
Ashcroft Says His Investigators Have Made Gains in Leak Case
Winvestigation into the disclosure of an undercover C.I.A. officer's identity, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday that investigators had made good progress but that he had not ruled out removing himself from the case.
Mr. Ashcroft also left open the possibility of appointing a special counsel to take over the case and of approving subpoenas to reporters in order to find the source of the leak. "I have not foreclosed any options in this matter," he said.
With the investigation now ending its third week, Mr. Ashcroft said: "I believe that we have been making progress that's valuable in this matter. And we will devote every energy that's available, and every resource that's available at the highest level of intensity."
The attorney general's comments were his most expansive and forceful to date on the politically charged investigation into whether Bush administration officials illegally disclosed the identity of the C.I.A. officer to the columnist Robert Novak.
The investigation has become a political tempest for the Bush administration because of accusations that unnamed officials leaked the officer's identity in an effort to intimidate her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, a critic of the intelligence that the administration used to justify the war in Iraq.
Democrats have called on Mr. Ashcroft to appoint a special counsel or recuse himself because of his close political ties to White House officials. Senate Democrats sought to introduce an amendment on Thursday to an Iraqi spending bill that would have called on Mr. Ashcroft to bring in a special counsel, but Republicans blocked the vote.
The White House counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, in a letter dated Wednesday to two Democratic senators, Charles E. Schumer of New York and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, said the administration had worked to ensure the integrity of the investigation.
Mr. Gonzales said White House officials "have already forwarded on a rolling basis thousands of pages of documents" to the Justice Department in response to investigators' request for relevant records on Mr. Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame.
There is worse to come for Mr Bush in the next few weeks. The leak investigation is expected to gather steam and will either produce a culprit close to the Oval Office or provoke claims of a whitewash.
Supposedly...this reporter knows (is one of the 7) who knows who leaked this. Is he just talking in generalities or is he hinting..
WASHINGTON (AP) --Two former CIA officers are asking the Senate Intelligence Committee to open its own investigation into who leaked the identity of an undercover officer.
Jim Marcinkowski, a case officer from 1986 to 1989, said a congressional investigation will be needed to demonstrate the credibility of an investigation now under way by the Justice Department.
"I have every confidence they (Justice officials) will come up with the right conclusion," he said in an interview Wednesday. "But obviously there are going to be people that are going to question that conclusion, so you might as well put it all on the table right now."
Marcinkowski, now deputy city attorney in Royal Oak, Michigan, appeared before the Senate panel Thursday. He and another former CIA officer, Larry Johnson, had requested the meeting. Johnson also served as the State Department's deputy chief of counterterrorism in the first Bush administration.
A call to the office of Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, was not immediately returned Wednesday. Roberts and the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, have been reluctant to start their own investigation, saying they don't want to interfere with the Justice Department inquiry.
Johnson rejected that position. "I think there's a lot they can do without undermining the criminal investigation," he said in an interview.
Investigators are trying to determine who leaked to columnist Robert Novak and two Newsday journalists the identity of an undercover CIA operations officer. The officer is married to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who has accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq before the war.
Novak wrote in his column that the information came from two senior administration officials.
Marcinkowski said he wants to stress to the committee that the leak was an "unprecedented and extremely egregious act." He said he wanted to urge the committee "to say, 'We're going to look at this because it's important."'
Johnson said: "When you start outing clandestine officers for political reasons, that has to be stopped."
He stressed that he is a Republican who voted for Bush and contributed to his presidential campaign.
Johnson said he and Marcinkowski had trained with the exposed officer at the CIA in 1985.
The washington post (seems like the only newspaper that cares) chimes in:
Quote:
More on the disclosure of Valerie Plame's employment at the CIA.
The Post today runs a story, basically similar to the one which ran
_ yesterday afternoon in the Associated Press. There's not too much there beyond word that a dozen-member FBI team has now interviewed more than three dozen administration officials.
They're also poring over phone logs and memos and the like. And the investigation remains centered on the White House.
The sizzle to the story is that Karl Rove and Scott McClellan, the president's press secretary, have both been interviewed.
Here's what catches my eye though. These are, as the Post notes, voluntary interviews. And I doubt that either of these men is the actual culprit (I suspect Rove pushed the story after the fact, but was likely not the original leaker, though he may have known about it.)
I'd be much more interested to learn whether the investigators have interviewed anybody in the Office of the Vice President, or the NSC, for that matter. These are voluntary interviews. So have the investigators asked but been rebuffed? Just not gotten to it yet?
That's the story I'd read with great interest.
One other point: The Post piece says "McClellan has specifically denied that any of three prominent White House officials -- Rove, Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff I. Lewis Libby and National Security Council official Elliott Abrams -- had leaked the information or authorized leaks."
As we've noted here before, that's not precisely what he's said. He's hung his statements on a very precise -- and to my mind -- highly technical and obfuscatory statement that none of them has "leaked classified information."
He's never made any blanket statements about things they may have
HEMMER: Tell me why you think it is such a big deal.
JOHNSON: Was 9/11 a big deal? It's a big deal in part because we saw the planes crash into the buildings and we saw the images and horrible vision of people jumping from those towers. We saw it. If we didn't see it and didn't read about it, we wouldn't know it happened.
The problem with this is a lot of the damage that has occurred is not going to be seen. It can't be photographed. We can't bring the bodies out because in some cases it's going to involve protecting sources and methods. And it's important to keep this before the American people. This was a betrayal of national security.
HEMMER: Larry, tell me, what's the damage, though. Be specific, as best you can right now. Have lives been lost? Have people been sacrificed?
JOHNSON: I don't know if lives have been lost yet, but we have to start with the damage to Mrs. Wilson. Her life has been put at risk. The people that she was working with overseas who were spies, they are potentially at risk. You could potentially have people dead because of this. But the odds of finding that out as far as the CIA coming forth and detailing it, we are not likely to hear that because they have to protect the sources and methods.
HEMMER: Jim, you appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. Can you tell us what happened.
MARCHINKOWSKI: First off, the hearing was held by Senator Rockefeller and Senator Roberts on 72-hour notice. They were receptive to our request to have a closed session of the Intelligence Committee. Obviously it was a closed session, but I can say this. I believe all the members were very concerned. They were very sincere in their concern and I have confidence that they are going to do the right thing.
HEMMER: After listening to Larry, it sounds like, essentially the sky is falling in terms of the CIA around the world. Do you see it that way and did you get that sense in the hearing?
MARCHINKOWSKI: Yes, I did. I think the message is out there. This is an unprecedented act. This has never been done by the United States government before. The exposure of an undercover intelligence officer by the U.S. government is unprecedented. It's not the usual leak from Washington. The leak a week scenario is not at play here. This is a very, very serious event.
HEMMER: You are both registered Republicans, right? How concerned are you about the political gain that one side or the other may seek in this?
JOHNSON: That's what we have to get out of this. I don't know, Bill if you have any kids, they've gone to school on "opposite day" where they wear their clothes inside out and wear their shoes on the wrong feet. I feel like we're seeing opposite day. If a Democrat had done this, we would see the Republicans up in arms.
As a Republican, I think we need to be consistent on this. It doesn't matter who did it, it didn't matter which party was involved. This isn't about partisan politics. This is about protecting national security and national security assets and in this case there has been a betrayal, not only of the CIA officers there, but really a betrayal of those of us who have kept the secrets over the years on this point.
This white house is going to try and bury this. They are going to call it no big deal. They are going to say this is partisan politcs.
They are showing (from friday) one of the former cia agents testify before the senate intelligence committee:
vince cannistrano (27 year cia employee):
i talked to some of my colleages who lived thru this period of intimidation and pressure. (iraq) and yes they say its intimidation, they say its pressure. the fact that its manifested by very senior officials. the vice president of the united states for the first time in my life of 27 years in intelligence, this is the first time i have ever heard of the VP going out to CIA and sitting down with desk level analysts.
The pres. the VP coming out and making a speech, cutting a ribbbon absolutely.
But sitting down and debating with junior level analysts and pushing him for support that he (the vp) personally beleives, that saddam was trying to aquire uranium, that to me is pressure, that to me is intimidation.
analysts are generally a fiesty lot. they don't often just rollover and play dead.but they are also political animals and alos career minded. and they are not going to say mr. vice president you're full of it. they'll say well we haven't found anything.
vp: you're not looking hard enough...
Well, we will go out and try again.
But that pressure is unrelenting and even when you don't find something and you report back and the vice pres. says its true, saddam is renewing his program, and says it on the eve of his invasion of the war.
or when other people, officials of the government demand that those 16 words are in the state of the union address about the nuclear program.
....
that means they (the WH) is not going to take no for an answer...it means we know what we (the WH) believe and if you don't find it then you are just doing an imcompentant job...
----
its goes on... sickening
cheney has no soul. bush does not have a brain. this is cheney's war.
These are cases that Ann Coulter conservatives consider a matter of treason:
1948 ? William Weisband, of the U.S. Armed Forces Security Agency (the predecessor of the NSA) provided U.S. codes to the Soviet Union. The Soviets change their codes and cripple U.S. military intelligence in the early days of the Korean War. Weisband a Russian spy since 1934 was fired from the NSA and served a year for contempt of a grand jury.
1949 ? Emil Julius Klaus Fuchs, Harry Gold, David Greenglass, Julius and Ethel Rosenburg, Max Elitcher, and Morton Sobel are arrested as members of a spy network that provided the Soviet Union with atomic espionage. David Greenglass pleaded guilty and testified against his colleagues. Gold also testified in the case.
On March 29, 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and Morton Sobell were found guilty. The Rosenbergs were sentenced to death and Sobell to 30 years. The Rosenbergs were executed at Sing Sing Prison, New York on June 19, 1953. David Greenglass received a 15-year sentence.
1980 ? Former CIA agent David H. Barnett pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union between 1976 and 1979 while based in Indonesia. Barnett was the first current or former CIA agent convicted of espionage. He exposed the identities of 30 U.S. agents.
1985 ? Former CIA officer Edward Lee Howard flees from the U.S while the FBI is investigating him for spying. Howard was suspected of disclosing the identities of CIA agents in Moscow. He turned up in the Soviet Union in 1986.
1985 ? Walker Family spy ring is exposed. Retired U.S. Navy Warrant Officer, John A. Walker Jr. pleaded guilty along with his son, Navy Seaman Michael L. Walker, 22, to charges of spying for the Soviet Union. John Walker passed secrets to the Soviets while he was a shipboard communications officer. In addition, Arthur Walker (his brother) and friend Jerry Whitworth were also convicted of stealing documents and passing Navy codes. Soviets discover American anti-submarine detection abilities and react by redesigning propulsion systems, crippling U.S. ASW ability.
1986 ? Ronald W. Pelton, a former employee of the U. S. National Security Agency, is convicted of selling top-secret signals intelligence information to the Soviet Union. Pelton revealed to his handlers that U.S. intelligence had tapped Soviet undersea cables and was listening to all navy communications.
February 1994 ? Aldrich Ames, 52, an alcoholic who had been a CIA employee for more than 31 years is charged, along with his wife, with spying for the Soviet Union and then later for Russia. Ames passed information to the KGB from 1985 to 1994 including the identities of U.S. agents and U.S. counterintelligence techniques. It was called the most damaging espionage case in American history. Later CIA chief John Deutch told Congress Ames compromised more than 100 U.S. spies. Ten were executed and others turned by the KGB to then feed selective information to the CIA. Ames and his wife received over $2.7 million, the most money paid by the Soviet Union/Russia to an American spy. Ames pleaded guilty in 1994 and was sentenced to life.
December 1996 ? FBI arrests one of its own, agent Earl Pitts. Pitts, who was stationed at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., had been selling secrets to Russia for nine years. He was paid more than $224,000. Pitts was caught in a sting, giving FBI cipher codes and his own security badge to FBI undercover agents he thought were his new Russian handlers. He was sentenced to 27 years.
November 1996 ? The FBI arrests veteran CIA officer Harold Nicholson on charges of spying for Russia. Nicholson was at a Washington airport on his way to Europe to meet with his Russian intelligence handlers. At the time of his arrest, he was carrying rolls of exposed film that contained secret information. In March 1997, Nicholson pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 23 years.
October 1998 ? A retired U.S. army intelligence analyst named David Sheldon Boone is charged with selling secrets to Moscow after FBI sting.
Nov. 29, 1999 ? U.S. military officials charge Navy code breaker Daniel King with selling data to Moscow.
June 14, 2000 ? U.S. Army Colonel George Trofimoff of Florida becomes the highest ranking U.S. military officer charged with spying. The FBI says Trofimoff was a spy for 25 years, photographing U.S. documents and passing the film to KGB agents.
This is what liberal democrat operatives think is treason:
July 2003 - One or two unknown party(s), presumably an employee(s) in the executive branch, tell one or more Washington journalists of the insider dispute over who/what/and how Wilson got assigned to a sensitive political task and mentioned that his wife is a local CIA employee ? apparently an open secret on the Washington cocktail circuit (as are the insider disputes). Said individual(s) violated employment secrecy law, not for a foreign power, but to aide his executive employer in the political infighting.
Wilson, a far-left, Nation magazine contributor becomes left celebrity, makes rash overstatements, and this thread joins in calling for ?jail or worse? (meaning capital punishment?)
If you think the bush appointed wilson who has contributed to both demos and repubs is "far left" then you have been listening to too much hate radio.and It really shows a lack of research. But that's beside the fact, wilson could have been a card carry NRA loving, didn't think ann coulter is a liar, bill oreilly t-shirt buying, rush limbaugh listening "good ole" american and it would not have made a difference to this white house.
Wilson came forth with information that showed the white house was not being forthright with the american people. Because of that, senior administration officials outed his wife and put the national security of this country in jepordy. PURELY FOR POLITICAL REVENGE.
Read the whole thread maybe you missed something. There is, in the words of bush JUNIOR's daddy, an "insidious traitor" in his son's white house....
Of course there have been other traitors in our country's history. Do me a little favor, look thru the list:
Did any of those people work in the white house or vice president's office?
Any of those people take their actions because wilson's comments showed their 16 words to be a lie?
Any one of those people go after the person's wife who exposed them?
Any one of those people people say how saddam would be found or ossama would be found (which they still have not by the way) and yet when it comes to a traitor in the next office say "the leaker may never be found"?
Any of those people have an AG that had one of the potencial leakers work on one of their election campaigns? and still not recuse himself?
That's exactly what is happening here and liberals, moderates, non rabid republicans, and even stevie wonder can see this...
Want to know what pathetic is?
Pathetic is the mindset of this white house to even think LET ALONE ACT on an action such as this...
Yes... this is all a big liberal consipiracy sureeeeeee....
Well you don't have a single answer to any of his questions, Mr. 4-Post.
It was'nt worth it, I'll demonstrate:
Q:"Of course there have been other traitors in our country's history. Do me a little favor, look thru the list:
Did any of those people work in the white house or vice president's office?"
A: On the list I offered, those guilty of treason were in the CIA, FBI, and US Military ? meaning they were less damaging than what recently occured ? Moreover, on a compressive list I could have also included Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White, and many others who have worked in both the white house and congress ? read the history of the cold war my friend and you?ll see how dumb that question is.
Q: Any of those people take their actions because Wilson?s comments showed their 16 words to be a lie?
A: No, the people took ?their actions? because of loyalty to the Soviet Union,international communism, and to enrich themselves on substantial money from their Soviet paymasters. They took that action in order to assist the second most powerful state, in a cold war with the west, sustain a state that killed 10?s of millions of its own citizens in reigns of terror, crushed eastern Europe under imperialism, and sought the destruction of world democratic systems. A little more treasonous than mentioning Wilson?s wife is a CIA employee ? Don?t you think ?
Q: Any one of those people go after the person's wife who exposed them?
A: No, none of the Soviet agents have ever ?gone after? someone's wife, they executed their exposer when possible. Of course, they also killed hundreds (maybe thousands) in exposing western agents and crippling US military efforts, cost the west 10s of billions, perhaps more, in reconstructing its defenses, and prolonged the cold war for a decade or more.
Q: Any one of those people say how saddam would be found or ossama would be found (which they still have not by the way) and yet when it comes to a traitor in the next office say "the leaker may never be found"?
A: Nope, the Soviet agents had no comment on Saddam or Osama, or are familiar with current political leakers (although they knew about and shielded their white house comrades in the 30s and 40s).
Q: Any of those people have an AG that had one of the potential leakers work on one of their election campaigns? and still not recuse himself?
A: Nope, none of these Soviet agents directed the US Attorney General to use a potential leaker on an election campaign. Now, Soviet agents did manage to appoint their comrades to various executive agencies, with the compliance of New Deal liberals. The more well know being Alger Hiss, a deputy Secretary of State, and Harry Dexter White in Treasury.
?Want to know what pathetic is?
Pathetic is the mindset of this white house to even think LET ALONE ACT on an action such as this...?
Now that I have answered Mr. 4?s ?questions? it should be obvious that it was hardly worth doing. Consumed by his hysteria, his fevered ramblings are, at times, incoherent. Getting excited that the AG appointed ?a potential leaker? (notice he said potential) is indictment by wishful thinking; going ballistic over an executive leaker and comparing them to the hunt for Bin Ladan or Saddam is someone who has lost touch with reality; someone who thinks this individual is guilty of treason has no familiarity with the law (which requires acting on behalf of an enemy of the United States) or a sense of proportion.
But come to think of it, he probably thinks that Bush is an enemy of the US government?no?
If Wilson is far-left in your eyes, something's seriously wrong with you dude. SERIOUSLY wrong. I guess some people just like to remain ignorant and in denial.
So what is the latest on the investigation? Did it get magically swept under the rug?
If Wilson is far-left in your eyes, something's seriously wrong with you dude. SERIOUSLY wrong. I guess some people just like to remain ignorant and in denial.
So what is the latest on the investigation? Did it get magically swept under the rug?
Well, ?dude?, lets look at Joseph C. Wilson the 4th (no kidding). Wilson has endorsed Sen. John Kerry, the New England liberal standard bearer, and has expressed a deeply ideological hatred of Bush. Wilson, a former Clinton appointee, chose to write his first blast of the Bush administration's Iraq policy in the far-left magazine The Nation in March. He wrote, "The underlying objective of this war is the imposition of a Pax Americana on the region and installation of vassal regimes that will control restive populations." He went on to predict: "Nations in the region?will now listen when Washington tells them to tailor policies and curb anti-Western dissent. Hegemony in the Arab nations of the Gulf has been achieved,? a laughable assertion, if it weren't so viscerally anti-American.
But Mr. Wilson and his wife are not new to politics. Both Wilson and his wife have been active Democrats for some time, they worked for both Bill Clinton and Al Gore, and donated the maximum allowed by law to Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, as did his wife Plame ? remarkable in that they also listed his wife?s name and the name of her CIA front company on the donation papers. In doing so, he obviously didn?t worry much about exposing covert companies or endangering his wife ? did he?
And there is more the Mr. Wilson than his show of being an aggrieved husband or a democratic operative. He really reveling in the fame, spending a lot of time ruminating over who might play his now famous wife Valerie Plame, when Hollywood calls. "She is really quite amazing," Wilson recently told The Washington Post, which described Plame as a slim, 40-year-old blonde, possessing "the looks of a film star" herself. Wilson apparently believes he will bring down this president and he mused to the Post that his future obituary might read, "Joseph C. Wilson IV, the Bush I administration political appointee who did the most damage to the Bush II administration ... "
Most recently, Mr. Wilson happily attended and spoke Washington's National Press Club meeting, with his WIFE no less, to accept an award from Nation magazine. Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers more than 30 years ago, was introduced at the National Press Club yesterday as 'the ultimate whistle-blower" (gee I thought that 'leaking' classified documents might be treason). But, grinning from the dais, Ellsberg said he'd finally achieved another great ambition: to meet Joe Wilson's wife."
I?ve only touched on some of his many theatrics (we once wore a lynch noose in front of reporters in the early 90's), and not addressed his smearing of Karl Rove (which Mr. Wilson had to retract).
There is a story here, but not the one democratic operatives wish to spin. Until then, you can be assured that if this story has legs, its in a wheelchair.
Well, ?dude?, lets look at Joseph C. Wilson the 4th (no kidding). Wilson has endorsed Sen. John Kerry, the New England liberal standard bearer, and has expressed a deeply ideological hatred of Bush. Wilson, a former Clinton appointee, chose to write his first blast of the Bush administration's Iraq policy in the far-left magazine The Nation in March. He wrote, "The underlying objective of this war is the imposition of a Pax Americana on the region and installation of vassal regimes that will control restive populations." He went on to predict: "Nations in the region?will now listen when Washington tells them to tailor policies and curb anti-Western dissent. Hegemony in the Arab nations of the Gulf has been achieved,? a laughable assertion, if it weren't so viscerally anti-American.
But Mr. Wilson and his wife are not new to politics. Both Wilson and his wife have been active Democrats for some time, they worked for both Bill Clinton and Al Gore, and donated the maximum allowed by law to Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, as did his wife Plame ? remarkable in that they also listed his wife?s name and the name of her CIA front company on the donation papers. In doing so, he obviously didn?t worry much about exposing covert companies or endangering his wife ? did he?
And there is more the Mr. Wilson than his show of being an aggrieved husband or a democratic operative. He really reveling in the fame, spending a lot of time ruminating over who might play his now famous wife Valerie Plame, when Hollywood calls. "She is really quite amazing," Wilson recently told The Washington Post, which described Plame as a slim, 40-year-old blonde, possessing "the looks of a film star" herself. Wilson apparently believes he will bring down this president and he mused to the Post that his future obituary might read, "Joseph C. Wilson IV, the Bush I administration political appointee who did the most damage to the Bush II administration ... "
Most recently, Mr. Wilson happily attended and spoke Washington's National Press Club meeting, with his WIFE no less, to accept an award from Nation magazine. Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers more than 30 years ago, was introduced at the National Press Club yesterday as 'the ultimate whistle-blower" (gee I thought that 'leaking' classified documents might be treason). But, grinning from the dais, Ellsberg said he'd finally achieved another great ambition: to meet Joe Wilson's wife."
I?ve only touched on some of his many theatrics (we once wore a lynch noose in front of reporters in the early 90's), and not addressed his smearing of Karl Rove (which Mr. Wilson had to retract).
There is a story here, but not the one democratic operatives wish to spin. Until then, you can be assured that if this story has legs, its in a wheelchair.
Yawn.
1). First, Wilson's politics don't even matter. It has nothing to do with the fact that senior administration officials unlawfully leaked the name of a CIA Operative-- Valerie Plame. That much is known and that much has been agreed upon even by President Bush himself.
2). Second, Wilson is probably a moderate Democrat-- not as far left as his critics would be happy to paint him. He has donated money to George W. Bush's presidential campaign (before the nasty South Carolina primary) and has worked for the first Bush administration. And if you think supporting John Kerry epitomizes far-left liberalism, you are mistaken (ridiculously so).
Comments
There are newer troubles as well: More than eight in 10 continue to see the alleged White House leak of a CIA operative's identity as a "serious matter," and the number who think the administration is fully cooperating in the investigation has declined to 39 percent. About two-thirds still favor appointment of an outside special counsel to look into the matter.
Looks like most american's don't agree with your mr. "president"...
Is it because the Admin came out and said that its council would likely not find the guilty party?
Is that really all it takes to put an end to a very serious investigation?
if so, then we need a new investigative body!!!!
Is it because the Admin came out and said that its council would likely not find the guilty party?
I think a large part of the blaim has to go to our so called "liberal"
The story was born in july of this year.David corn broke the story re bob nofacts and the outing. It was ignored for the most part. The nytimes to this day has not contributed anything to this. Most of the rest of the media has been asleep at the wheel or worse cowtowing to bush JUNIOR's press dept.
I think right now we are in the pre "gap dress" stage of the investigation. from now until jan. i really don't know if anything big will happen but come next year it becomes a major political story by the democrats running for prez. And right fully so.
If this had been clinton. His decaying body would still be hung up by his fingernails in washinton square...
The "president' said he would do anything to find ossam. to get saddam. and yet when it comes to a "insidious traitor" (those are daddy's words JUNIOR, not mine) within his own walls he puts up his hands and says "its a big goverment, we may never find the leaker."
You may not find him "prez" but you know or you know who knows who it is.
Lie. Deceive. Go to war. Tax cuts.
Bush JUNIOR does not know much, but he knows one thing. There is a traitor in his midst and the best thing for him would have been to get all of this out last month. But he did not. This means it political liablity going into the next election.
But hey. At least the media has got that Kobe case covered
Why this press conference?
Just PR to help the presidents bottom scraping pol numbers...?
Ashcroft Says His Investigators Have Made Gains in Leak Case
Ashcroft Says His Investigators Have Made Gains in Leak Case
Winvestigation into the disclosure of an undercover C.I.A. officer's identity, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday that investigators had made good progress but that he had not ruled out removing himself from the case.
Mr. Ashcroft also left open the possibility of appointing a special counsel to take over the case and of approving subpoenas to reporters in order to find the source of the leak. "I have not foreclosed any options in this matter," he said.
With the investigation now ending its third week, Mr. Ashcroft said: "I believe that we have been making progress that's valuable in this matter. And we will devote every energy that's available, and every resource that's available at the highest level of intensity."
The attorney general's comments were his most expansive and forceful to date on the politically charged investigation into whether Bush administration officials illegally disclosed the identity of the C.I.A. officer to the columnist Robert Novak.
The investigation has become a political tempest for the Bush administration because of accusations that unnamed officials leaked the officer's identity in an effort to intimidate her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, a critic of the intelligence that the administration used to justify the war in Iraq.
Democrats have called on Mr. Ashcroft to appoint a special counsel or recuse himself because of his close political ties to White House officials. Senate Democrats sought to introduce an amendment on Thursday to an Iraqi spending bill that would have called on Mr. Ashcroft to bring in a special counsel, but Republicans blocked the vote.
The White House counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, in a letter dated Wednesday to two Democratic senators, Charles E. Schumer of New York and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, said the administration had worked to ensure the integrity of the investigation.
Mr. Gonzales said White House officials "have already forwarded on a rolling basis thousands of pages of documents" to the Justice Department in response to investigators' request for relevant records on Mr. Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame.
http://mfile.akamai.com/8082/mov/www...g_worse_hi.mov
Meanwhile the "liberal" media still is allowing JUNIOR to harbor a traitor in the white house by shirking their reporting responsiblities...
Originally posted by keyboardf12
They made a commercial out of it:
http://mfile.akamai.com/8082/mov/www...g_worse_hi.mov
Meanwhile the "liberal" media still is allowing JUNIOR to harbor a traitor in the white house by shirking their reporting responsiblities...
boy, that add has all the earmarks of ugly propaganda . . . even if it is about a worthy cause
. . . I mean all the direct assertions of treason over images of Bush which point then to him directly . . . that's the kind of stuff tht turns me off
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story...065804,00.html
There is worse to come for Mr Bush in the next few weeks. The leak investigation is expected to gather steam and will either produce a culprit close to the Oval Office or provoke claims of a whitewash.
Supposedly...this reporter knows (is one of the 7) who knows who leaked this. Is he just talking in generalities or is he hinting..
???
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/....ap/index.html
Ex-CIA officers seek Senate leak probe
WASHINGTON (AP) --Two former CIA officers are asking the Senate Intelligence Committee to open its own investigation into who leaked the identity of an undercover officer.
Jim Marcinkowski, a case officer from 1986 to 1989, said a congressional investigation will be needed to demonstrate the credibility of an investigation now under way by the Justice Department.
"I have every confidence they (Justice officials) will come up with the right conclusion," he said in an interview Wednesday. "But obviously there are going to be people that are going to question that conclusion, so you might as well put it all on the table right now."
Marcinkowski, now deputy city attorney in Royal Oak, Michigan, appeared before the Senate panel Thursday. He and another former CIA officer, Larry Johnson, had requested the meeting. Johnson also served as the State Department's deputy chief of counterterrorism in the first Bush administration.
A call to the office of Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, was not immediately returned Wednesday. Roberts and the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, have been reluctant to start their own investigation, saying they don't want to interfere with the Justice Department inquiry.
Johnson rejected that position. "I think there's a lot they can do without undermining the criminal investigation," he said in an interview.
Investigators are trying to determine who leaked to columnist Robert Novak and two Newsday journalists the identity of an undercover CIA operations officer. The officer is married to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who has accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq before the war.
Novak wrote in his column that the information came from two senior administration officials.
Marcinkowski said he wants to stress to the committee that the leak was an "unprecedented and extremely egregious act." He said he wanted to urge the committee "to say, 'We're going to look at this because it's important."'
Johnson said: "When you start outing clandestine officers for political reasons, that has to be stopped."
He stressed that he is a Republican who voted for Bush and contributed to his presidential campaign.
Johnson said he and Marcinkowski had trained with the exposed officer at the CIA in 1985.
The washington post (seems like the only newspaper that cares) chimes in:
More on the disclosure of Valerie Plame's employment at the CIA.
The Post today runs a story, basically similar to the one which ran
_ yesterday afternoon in the Associated Press. There's not too much there beyond word that a dozen-member FBI team has now interviewed more than three dozen administration officials.
They're also poring over phone logs and memos and the like. And the investigation remains centered on the White House.
The sizzle to the story is that Karl Rove and Scott McClellan, the president's press secretary, have both been interviewed.
Here's what catches my eye though. These are, as the Post notes, voluntary interviews. And I doubt that either of these men is the actual culprit (I suspect Rove pushed the story after the fact, but was likely not the original leaker, though he may have known about it.)
I'd be much more interested to learn whether the investigators have interviewed anybody in the Office of the Vice President, or the NSC, for that matter. These are voluntary interviews. So have the investigators asked but been rebuffed? Just not gotten to it yet?
That's the story I'd read with great interest.
One other point: The Post piece says "McClellan has specifically denied that any of three prominent White House officials -- Rove, Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff I. Lewis Libby and National Security Council official Elliott Abrams -- had leaked the information or authorized leaks."
As we've noted here before, that's not precisely what he's said. He's hung his statements on a very precise -- and to my mind -- highly technical and obfuscatory statement that none of them has "leaked classified information."
He's never made any blanket statements about things they may have
-- Josh Marshall
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/...eak/index.html
HEMMER: Tell me why you think it is such a big deal.
JOHNSON: Was 9/11 a big deal? It's a big deal in part because we saw the planes crash into the buildings and we saw the images and horrible vision of people jumping from those towers. We saw it. If we didn't see it and didn't read about it, we wouldn't know it happened.
The problem with this is a lot of the damage that has occurred is not going to be seen. It can't be photographed. We can't bring the bodies out because in some cases it's going to involve protecting sources and methods. And it's important to keep this before the American people. This was a betrayal of national security.
HEMMER: Larry, tell me, what's the damage, though. Be specific, as best you can right now. Have lives been lost? Have people been sacrificed?
JOHNSON: I don't know if lives have been lost yet, but we have to start with the damage to Mrs. Wilson. Her life has been put at risk. The people that she was working with overseas who were spies, they are potentially at risk. You could potentially have people dead because of this. But the odds of finding that out as far as the CIA coming forth and detailing it, we are not likely to hear that because they have to protect the sources and methods.
HEMMER: Jim, you appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. Can you tell us what happened.
MARCHINKOWSKI: First off, the hearing was held by Senator Rockefeller and Senator Roberts on 72-hour notice. They were receptive to our request to have a closed session of the Intelligence Committee. Obviously it was a closed session, but I can say this. I believe all the members were very concerned. They were very sincere in their concern and I have confidence that they are going to do the right thing.
HEMMER: After listening to Larry, it sounds like, essentially the sky is falling in terms of the CIA around the world. Do you see it that way and did you get that sense in the hearing?
MARCHINKOWSKI: Yes, I did. I think the message is out there. This is an unprecedented act. This has never been done by the United States government before. The exposure of an undercover intelligence officer by the U.S. government is unprecedented. It's not the usual leak from Washington. The leak a week scenario is not at play here. This is a very, very serious event.
HEMMER: You are both registered Republicans, right? How concerned are you about the political gain that one side or the other may seek in this?
JOHNSON: That's what we have to get out of this. I don't know, Bill if you have any kids, they've gone to school on "opposite day" where they wear their clothes inside out and wear their shoes on the wrong feet. I feel like we're seeing opposite day. If a Democrat had done this, we would see the Republicans up in arms.
As a Republican, I think we need to be consistent on this. It doesn't matter who did it, it didn't matter which party was involved. This isn't about partisan politics. This is about protecting national security and national security assets and in this case there has been a betrayal, not only of the CIA officers there, but really a betrayal of those of us who have kept the secrets over the years on this point.
This white house is going to try and bury this. They are going to call it no big deal. They are going to say this is partisan politcs.
The leakers must be brought forward and punished!
They are showing (from friday) one of the former cia agents testify before the senate intelligence committee:
vince cannistrano (27 year cia employee):
i talked to some of my colleages who lived thru this period of intimidation and pressure. (iraq) and yes they say its intimidation, they say its pressure. the fact that its manifested by very senior officials. the vice president of the united states for the first time in my life of 27 years in intelligence, this is the first time i have ever heard of the VP going out to CIA and sitting down with desk level analysts.
The pres. the VP coming out and making a speech, cutting a ribbbon absolutely.
But sitting down and debating with junior level analysts and pushing him for support that he (the vp) personally beleives, that saddam was trying to aquire uranium, that to me is pressure, that to me is intimidation.
analysts are generally a fiesty lot. they don't often just rollover and play dead.but they are also political animals and alos career minded. and they are not going to say mr. vice president you're full of it. they'll say well we haven't found anything.
vp: you're not looking hard enough...
Well, we will go out and try again.
But that pressure is unrelenting and even when you don't find something and you report back and the vice pres. says its true, saddam is renewing his program, and says it on the eve of his invasion of the war.
or when other people, officials of the government demand that those 16 words are in the state of the union address about the nuclear program.
....
that means they (the WH) is not going to take no for an answer...it means we know what we (the WH) believe and if you don't find it then you are just doing an imcompentant job...
----
its goes on... sickening
cheney has no soul. bush does not have a brain. this is cheney's war.
1948 ? William Weisband, of the U.S. Armed Forces Security Agency (the predecessor of the NSA) provided U.S. codes to the Soviet Union. The Soviets change their codes and cripple U.S. military intelligence in the early days of the Korean War. Weisband a Russian spy since 1934 was fired from the NSA and served a year for contempt of a grand jury.
1949 ? Emil Julius Klaus Fuchs, Harry Gold, David Greenglass, Julius and Ethel Rosenburg, Max Elitcher, and Morton Sobel are arrested as members of a spy network that provided the Soviet Union with atomic espionage. David Greenglass pleaded guilty and testified against his colleagues. Gold also testified in the case.
On March 29, 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and Morton Sobell were found guilty. The Rosenbergs were sentenced to death and Sobell to 30 years. The Rosenbergs were executed at Sing Sing Prison, New York on June 19, 1953. David Greenglass received a 15-year sentence.
1980 ? Former CIA agent David H. Barnett pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union between 1976 and 1979 while based in Indonesia. Barnett was the first current or former CIA agent convicted of espionage. He exposed the identities of 30 U.S. agents.
1985 ? Former CIA officer Edward Lee Howard flees from the U.S while the FBI is investigating him for spying. Howard was suspected of disclosing the identities of CIA agents in Moscow. He turned up in the Soviet Union in 1986.
1985 ? Walker Family spy ring is exposed. Retired U.S. Navy Warrant Officer, John A. Walker Jr. pleaded guilty along with his son, Navy Seaman Michael L. Walker, 22, to charges of spying for the Soviet Union. John Walker passed secrets to the Soviets while he was a shipboard communications officer. In addition, Arthur Walker (his brother) and friend Jerry Whitworth were also convicted of stealing documents and passing Navy codes. Soviets discover American anti-submarine detection abilities and react by redesigning propulsion systems, crippling U.S. ASW ability.
1986 ? Ronald W. Pelton, a former employee of the U. S. National Security Agency, is convicted of selling top-secret signals intelligence information to the Soviet Union. Pelton revealed to his handlers that U.S. intelligence had tapped Soviet undersea cables and was listening to all navy communications.
February 1994 ? Aldrich Ames, 52, an alcoholic who had been a CIA employee for more than 31 years is charged, along with his wife, with spying for the Soviet Union and then later for Russia. Ames passed information to the KGB from 1985 to 1994 including the identities of U.S. agents and U.S. counterintelligence techniques. It was called the most damaging espionage case in American history. Later CIA chief John Deutch told Congress Ames compromised more than 100 U.S. spies. Ten were executed and others turned by the KGB to then feed selective information to the CIA. Ames and his wife received over $2.7 million, the most money paid by the Soviet Union/Russia to an American spy. Ames pleaded guilty in 1994 and was sentenced to life.
December 1996 ? FBI arrests one of its own, agent Earl Pitts. Pitts, who was stationed at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., had been selling secrets to Russia for nine years. He was paid more than $224,000. Pitts was caught in a sting, giving FBI cipher codes and his own security badge to FBI undercover agents he thought were his new Russian handlers. He was sentenced to 27 years.
November 1996 ? The FBI arrests veteran CIA officer Harold Nicholson on charges of spying for Russia. Nicholson was at a Washington airport on his way to Europe to meet with his Russian intelligence handlers. At the time of his arrest, he was carrying rolls of exposed film that contained secret information. In March 1997, Nicholson pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 23 years.
October 1998 ? A retired U.S. army intelligence analyst named David Sheldon Boone is charged with selling secrets to Moscow after FBI sting.
Nov. 29, 1999 ? U.S. military officials charge Navy code breaker Daniel King with selling data to Moscow.
June 14, 2000 ? U.S. Army Colonel George Trofimoff of Florida becomes the highest ranking U.S. military officer charged with spying. The FBI says Trofimoff was a spy for 25 years, photographing U.S. documents and passing the film to KGB agents.
This is what liberal democrat operatives think is treason:
July 2003 - One or two unknown party(s), presumably an employee(s) in the executive branch, tell one or more Washington journalists of the insider dispute over who/what/and how Wilson got assigned to a sensitive political task and mentioned that his wife is a local CIA employee ? apparently an open secret on the Washington cocktail circuit (as are the insider disputes). Said individual(s) violated employment secrecy law, not for a foreign power, but to aide his executive employer in the political infighting.
Wilson, a far-left, Nation magazine contributor becomes left celebrity, makes rash overstatements, and this thread joins in calling for ?jail or worse? (meaning capital punishment?)
How pathetic!
If you think the bush appointed wilson who has contributed to both demos and repubs is "far left" then you have been listening to too much hate radio.and It really shows a lack of research. But that's beside the fact, wilson could have been a card carry NRA loving, didn't think ann coulter is a liar, bill oreilly t-shirt buying, rush limbaugh listening "good ole" american and it would not have made a difference to this white house.
Wilson came forth with information that showed the white house was not being forthright with the american people. Because of that, senior administration officials outed his wife and put the national security of this country in jepordy. PURELY FOR POLITICAL REVENGE.
Read the whole thread maybe you missed something. There is, in the words of bush JUNIOR's daddy, an "insidious traitor" in his son's white house....
Of course there have been other traitors in our country's history. Do me a little favor, look thru the list:
Did any of those people work in the white house or vice president's office?
Any of those people take their actions because wilson's comments showed their 16 words to be a lie?
Any one of those people go after the person's wife who exposed them?
Any one of those people people say how saddam would be found or ossama would be found (which they still have not by the way) and yet when it comes to a traitor in the next office say "the leaker may never be found"?
Any of those people have an AG that had one of the potencial leakers work on one of their election campaigns? and still not recuse himself?
That's exactly what is happening here and liberals, moderates, non rabid republicans, and even stevie wonder can see this...
Want to know what pathetic is?
Pathetic is the mindset of this white house to even think LET ALONE ACT on an action such as this...
Yes... this is all a big liberal consipiracy sureeeeeee....
Har Har
Originally posted by MaxParrish
That's your best shot ?
Har Har
Well you don't have a single answer to any of his questions, Mr. 4-Post.
Originally posted by MaxParrish
That's your best shot ?
Har Har
That's all your worth...
Have a nice day. Watch out for the liberal media. They are ALL out to get TRUE Americans such as you...
Say hello to Ann Coulter for me the next time you are at one of her book signings...
Well you don't have a single answer to any of his questions, Mr. 4-Post.
It was'nt worth it, I'll demonstrate:
Q:"Of course there have been other traitors in our country's history. Do me a little favor, look thru the list:
Did any of those people work in the white house or vice president's office?"
A: On the list I offered, those guilty of treason were in the CIA, FBI, and US Military ? meaning they were less damaging than what recently occured ? Moreover, on a compressive list I could have also included Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White, and many others who have worked in both the white house and congress ? read the history of the cold war my friend and you?ll see how dumb that question is.
Q: Any of those people take their actions because Wilson?s comments showed their 16 words to be a lie?
A: No, the people took ?their actions? because of loyalty to the Soviet Union,international communism, and to enrich themselves on substantial money from their Soviet paymasters. They took that action in order to assist the second most powerful state, in a cold war with the west, sustain a state that killed 10?s of millions of its own citizens in reigns of terror, crushed eastern Europe under imperialism, and sought the destruction of world democratic systems. A little more treasonous than mentioning Wilson?s wife is a CIA employee ? Don?t you think ?
Q: Any one of those people go after the person's wife who exposed them?
A: No, none of the Soviet agents have ever ?gone after? someone's wife, they executed their exposer when possible. Of course, they also killed hundreds (maybe thousands) in exposing western agents and crippling US military efforts, cost the west 10s of billions, perhaps more, in reconstructing its defenses, and prolonged the cold war for a decade or more.
Q: Any one of those people say how saddam would be found or ossama would be found (which they still have not by the way) and yet when it comes to a traitor in the next office say "the leaker may never be found"?
A: Nope, the Soviet agents had no comment on Saddam or Osama, or are familiar with current political leakers (although they knew about and shielded their white house comrades in the 30s and 40s).
Q: Any of those people have an AG that had one of the potential leakers work on one of their election campaigns? and still not recuse himself?
A: Nope, none of these Soviet agents directed the US Attorney General to use a potential leaker on an election campaign. Now, Soviet agents did manage to appoint their comrades to various executive agencies, with the compliance of New Deal liberals. The more well know being Alger Hiss, a deputy Secretary of State, and Harry Dexter White in Treasury.
?Want to know what pathetic is?
Pathetic is the mindset of this white house to even think LET ALONE ACT on an action such as this...?
Now that I have answered Mr. 4?s ?questions? it should be obvious that it was hardly worth doing. Consumed by his hysteria, his fevered ramblings are, at times, incoherent. Getting excited that the AG appointed ?a potential leaker? (notice he said potential) is indictment by wishful thinking; going ballistic over an executive leaker and comparing them to the hunt for Bin Ladan or Saddam is someone who has lost touch with reality; someone who thinks this individual is guilty of treason has no familiarity with the law (which requires acting on behalf of an enemy of the United States) or a sense of proportion.
But come to think of it, he probably thinks that Bush is an enemy of the US government?no?
So what is the latest on the investigation? Did it get magically swept under the rug?
The senate had 3 form cia agents paint a picutre of the bush admin's actions re: the iraq info...
It does not paint a pretty picture of them to say the least.
I still say we are in the "blue gap dress" of the investiagtion. Things probably won't heat up till Jan.
But from my other readings the CIA is NOT going to let it go. There seems to be a war going on between them and the white house.
I expect it will be current and former CIA agents that do the bulk of the heavy work until next year...
Originally posted by Gilsch
If Wilson is far-left in your eyes, something's seriously wrong with you dude.
So what is the latest on the investigation? Did it get magically swept under the rug?
Well, ?dude?, lets look at Joseph C. Wilson the 4th (no kidding). Wilson has endorsed Sen. John Kerry, the New England liberal standard bearer, and has expressed a deeply ideological hatred of Bush. Wilson, a former Clinton appointee, chose to write his first blast of the Bush administration's Iraq policy in the far-left magazine The Nation in March. He wrote, "The underlying objective of this war is the imposition of a Pax Americana on the region and installation of vassal regimes that will control restive populations." He went on to predict: "Nations in the region?will now listen when Washington tells them to tailor policies and curb anti-Western dissent. Hegemony in the Arab nations of the Gulf has been achieved,? a laughable assertion, if it weren't so viscerally anti-American.
But Mr. Wilson and his wife are not new to politics. Both Wilson and his wife have been active Democrats for some time, they worked for both Bill Clinton and Al Gore, and donated the maximum allowed by law to Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, as did his wife Plame ? remarkable in that they also listed his wife?s name and the name of her CIA front company on the donation papers. In doing so, he obviously didn?t worry much about exposing covert companies or endangering his wife ? did he?
And there is more the Mr. Wilson than his show of being an aggrieved husband or a democratic operative. He really reveling in the fame, spending a lot of time ruminating over who might play his now famous wife Valerie Plame, when Hollywood calls. "She is really quite amazing," Wilson recently told The Washington Post, which described Plame as a slim, 40-year-old blonde, possessing "the looks of a film star" herself. Wilson apparently believes he will bring down this president and he mused to the Post that his future obituary might read, "Joseph C. Wilson IV, the Bush I administration political appointee who did the most damage to the Bush II administration ... "
Most recently, Mr. Wilson happily attended and spoke Washington's National Press Club meeting, with his WIFE no less, to accept an award from Nation magazine. Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers more than 30 years ago, was introduced at the National Press Club yesterday as 'the ultimate whistle-blower" (gee I thought that 'leaking' classified documents might be treason). But, grinning from the dais, Ellsberg said he'd finally achieved another great ambition: to meet Joe Wilson's wife."
I?ve only touched on some of his many theatrics (we once wore a lynch noose in front of reporters in the early 90's), and not addressed his smearing of Karl Rove (which Mr. Wilson had to retract).
There is a story here, but not the one democratic operatives wish to spin. Until then, you can be assured that if this story has legs, its in a wheelchair.
Originally posted by MaxParrish
Well, ?dude?, lets look at Joseph C. Wilson the 4th (no kidding). Wilson has endorsed Sen. John Kerry, the New England liberal standard bearer, and has expressed a deeply ideological hatred of Bush. Wilson, a former Clinton appointee, chose to write his first blast of the Bush administration's Iraq policy in the far-left magazine The Nation in March. He wrote, "The underlying objective of this war is the imposition of a Pax Americana on the region and installation of vassal regimes that will control restive populations." He went on to predict: "Nations in the region?will now listen when Washington tells them to tailor policies and curb anti-Western dissent. Hegemony in the Arab nations of the Gulf has been achieved,? a laughable assertion, if it weren't so viscerally anti-American.
But Mr. Wilson and his wife are not new to politics. Both Wilson and his wife have been active Democrats for some time, they worked for both Bill Clinton and Al Gore, and donated the maximum allowed by law to Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, as did his wife Plame ? remarkable in that they also listed his wife?s name and the name of her CIA front company on the donation papers. In doing so, he obviously didn?t worry much about exposing covert companies or endangering his wife ? did he?
And there is more the Mr. Wilson than his show of being an aggrieved husband or a democratic operative. He really reveling in the fame, spending a lot of time ruminating over who might play his now famous wife Valerie Plame, when Hollywood calls. "She is really quite amazing," Wilson recently told The Washington Post, which described Plame as a slim, 40-year-old blonde, possessing "the looks of a film star" herself. Wilson apparently believes he will bring down this president and he mused to the Post that his future obituary might read, "Joseph C. Wilson IV, the Bush I administration political appointee who did the most damage to the Bush II administration ... "
Most recently, Mr. Wilson happily attended and spoke Washington's National Press Club meeting, with his WIFE no less, to accept an award from Nation magazine. Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers more than 30 years ago, was introduced at the National Press Club yesterday as 'the ultimate whistle-blower" (gee I thought that 'leaking' classified documents might be treason). But, grinning from the dais, Ellsberg said he'd finally achieved another great ambition: to meet Joe Wilson's wife."
I?ve only touched on some of his many theatrics (we once wore a lynch noose in front of reporters in the early 90's), and not addressed his smearing of Karl Rove (which Mr. Wilson had to retract).
There is a story here, but not the one democratic operatives wish to spin. Until then, you can be assured that if this story has legs, its in a wheelchair.
Yawn.
1). First, Wilson's politics don't even matter. It has nothing to do with the fact that senior administration officials unlawfully leaked the name of a CIA Operative-- Valerie Plame. That much is known and that much has been agreed upon even by President Bush himself.
2). Second, Wilson is probably a moderate Democrat-- not as far left as his critics would be happy to paint him. He has donated money to George W. Bush's presidential campaign (before the nasty South Carolina primary) and has worked for the first Bush administration. And if you think supporting John Kerry epitomizes far-left liberalism, you are mistaken (ridiculously so).